India’s Military Modernisation in the Shadow of the China Threat
| Published date | 01 December 2023 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/23477970231207249 |
| Author | Gunjan Singh |
| Date | 01 December 2023 |
| Subject Matter | Research Articles |
Research Article
India’s Military
Modernisation in
the Shadow of the
China Threat
Gunjan Singh1
Abstract
The violent Galwan clashes of 2020 have changed the trajectory of India–China
relations. It has also compelled the Indian government and policy makers to
undertake major and long-term changes to push for military modernisation.
The need for a modernised, leaner, and younger military is quite eminent
and the Galwan clashes have further underscored this issue. Given this backdrop,
the article looks at the various changes, which the current Indian government
under Prime Minister Narendra Modi has undertaken to achieve this goal. It
also argues that the government is aware that these changes will need time
and resources while acknowledging that the Indian side cannot continue to be
reactive. India under the current leadership appears to be a very different nation
than the Chinese are used to.
Keywords
India–China Relations, Galwan clashes, line of actual control, military
modernisation, Atmanirbhar Bharat, Agniveer programme, military cooperation,
infrastructure development
Introduction
The need for Indian defence modernisation has become very pressing considering
the developments across the line of actual control (LAC) since 2012, the year
President Xi Jinping came to power in China. Under President Xi, there has been
a rise in Chinese assertion and military aggression, which has been motivated
Journal of Asian Security
and International Affairs
10(3) 277–300, 2023
© The Author(s) 2023
Article reuse guidelines:
in.sagepub.com/journals-permissions-india
DOI: 10.1177/23477970231207249
journals.sagepub.com/home/aia
1
Jindal Law School, OP Jindal Global University, Sonepat, Haryana, India
Corresponding author:
Gunjan Singh, Jindal Law School, OP Jindal Global University, Sonepat, Haryana 131001, India.
E-mail: gunjsingh@gmail.com
278 Journal of Asian Security and International Affairs 10(3)
and sustained by changes in Chinese domestic politics and Xi Jinping’s political
ambitions. The unresolved border coupled with rising Chinese nationalism and
military assertiveness have become a major challenge for India, particularly
since the Galwan clashes in June 2020. After the Galwan clashes, in which both
sides suffered fatalities, the two largest armies in South Asia have remained fully
mobilised and in eyeball-to-eyeball confrontation across the LAC in Ladakh,
which has made the situation on the ground highly unpredictable and volatile.
This confrontation between the Indian military and the People’s Liberation Army
(PLA) across the LAC has continued for over three years and prevented any
normalisation of Sino-Indian ties. While 19 rounds of military-to-military and
diplomatic talks have taken place between the two sides, the military confrontation
across the LAC has shown very little signs that it is moving towards a peaceful
resolution.
The Chinese army gets its newfound confidence and assertiveness from
China’s sustained military expenditure and modernisation, which has been rising
every year. In addition to this, President Xi Jinping has changed the existing
domestic political set up by abolishing presidential term limits and thereby
securing his position for life. This has made him one of the strongest leaders in
Chinese history and thus makes him more confident to push for unilateral border
settlements.
It is therefore not surprising that the number of Chinese transgressions across
the LAC has been on a rise; from 423 in 2015 to 668 in 2019 (Shukla, 2020). It is
not only border transgressions, but the number and intensity of the border clashes
has been on a rise too. In 2014, just before Xi Jinping’s first visit to India, the
militaries had a face-off in the Chumar area when the PLA attempted to prevent a
canal construction on the Indian side. Another stand-off followed in 2015, in the
Depsang plains. The 2017 Doklam clashes in the Bhutan-India-China tri-junction
further aggravated the situation as the militaries were in proximity and fully
armed for almost 70 days. This build up finally culminated in the violent clashes
in the Galwan region in Ladakh in June 2020, which broke the peace and
tranquillity of the last four decades across the LAC (Banerjee, 2022).
Given the disputed and complicated border history and war (for more see
Menon (2021) and Rao (2021)). it is no surprise that China continues to occupy the
central place in Indian military calculations and has been a major driver of Indian
military modernisation. The relentless pace of Chinese military modernisation and
infrastructure development has further increased the technological gap between
New Delhi and Beijing in the last decade, thus making it increasingly essential for
New Delhi to modernise or accept China as the stronger actor in the South Asian
region.
China as a Driver of India’s Military Modernisation
The changing point with China became evident since April to May 2020. It was
when the Confidence Building Mechanisms (CBMs) of 1993, 1996, 2005 and
2013 broke down (Joshi, 2023). The period witnessed a violent clash between the
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